new New Pornographers

i don't think anyone knows yet?

but i assume so as she appears on the album in some capacity

and that's how they've always done things

I hope they finally give Neko some fast ones to sing. Inexplicably, they haven't since Electric Version.

You are all crazy, bashing the Dan Bejar songs. Ballad Of A Comeback Kid is one of the best things they ever did.

I could have sworn I read somewhere that *all* of them play on every song on the album; that Carl Newman wanted to see if they could pull off doing it as a full band album rather than as a "through-the-post" thing. Maybe that was an original intention that didn't come to pass, though - I can't find a link anywhere.

I hope they finally give Neko some fast ones to sing. Inexplicably, they haven't since Electric Version.

she co-leads sing me spanish techno, and that's a fast song.

I want another solo Neko like All For Swinging You Around or Letter From an Occupant

I want an entire album of her singing songs like those.

^^^
otm

i'd be good with that too, but i love most the songs where she harmonizes with ac newman.

well, i'm sure ac newman would love that too, but it's not like great songs like those just happen ... in fact, i'd be willing to bet that he's set the bar so high with those (and a few other Neko rockers) that he's kinda cagy about following them up ...

Or he could admit she's the best singer in the band and let her improve everything by singing lead all of the time.

I like having her pop up on lead just a couple times per record - feels more like an "event." All Neko all the time would be too much of a good thing IMO.

I'd probably mind Bejar less if the timbre of his voice didn't irritate the hell out of me.

Ah, this brings me back to the days when I first heard a Bejar song on an NPs album and thought, "Where'd they find this guy and why are they letting him sing?" Fast-forward a few years and there are now at least two Destroyer albums that I prefer to any of the NP's work.

I'm still in the why do they let him sing camp.

Bejar always brings the laughs on these records. They would be kinda boring lyrically w/o him.

That dude was a drunken mess when I saw him live w/NP.

Bejar also brings the booze.

stage fright
xpost

tylerw summing up how i feel about bejar on the nps records. i like newman's lyrics but bejar is a great change of pace

I'd love some more Neko rockers too... BUT - the title track from the last record is stunning. Neko's performance is refreshingly understated on that song, to excellent effect. That whole album is underrated. I find myself coming back to that one more than Twin Cinema.

hm. well, even on twin cinema, case was doing more understated vocal work, e.g., streets of fire; bones ofa an idol; these are the fables.

True, but "Challengers" is better than those songs, I think.

who's harmonizing with ac newman on failsafe (from challengers)? i think it's the stand-in for neko case, who actually is also a terrific singer and compliments newman's voice well.

sorry -- she isn't a stand-in at this point, she's a permanent member of the band, i think.

I've got to give the last one more of a chance I guess. The only song I really liked on it was Myriad Harbour. Which means for 2 out of their 4 records, my favorite song was a Bejar one.

that was one of my least favorite songs on challengers. i know some people really dug-it, tho.

Kathryn Calder is the other woman in the band. I actually really love "Failsafe" too.

As for the rest of Challengers, "My Rights vs Yours" is such a fantastic song too! The way that song builds is thrilling. And "All of the Things that Go to Make Heaven and Earth" and "All the Old Showstoppers" - both excellent.

more on st. vincent's guitar work on the new disc.

That dude was a drunken mess when I saw him live w/NP.

iit was just that one time tbh iirc...

I actually really love "Failsafe" too.

As for the rest of Challengers, "My Rights vs Yours" is such a fantastic song too! The way that song builds is thrilling. And "All of the Things that Go to Make Heaven and Earth" and "All the Old Showstoppers" - both excellent.

i'd remove the bejar track and add challengers, go places and adventures in solitude, and you've got an album full of underappreciated highlights. i just wish they didn't try to keep the mood so subdued. some of these songs would take flight with a dose of the band's earlier energy.

new record, especially first half, is extremely bruising and solid. bejar contribution "silver jenny dollar" is one of his best.

v. happy to hear that. as i said above, i think the perfect tonic for this band is a rock album (not a "power pop" album, but a rock album -- and i think they have a great rock album in them).

...i think they have a great rock album in them).

― Daniel, Esq., Monday, March 8, 2010 10:48 PM

Give us 6 more It's Only Divine Right's and they'll be halfway there.

i like rolling stone's description of the song your hands (together):

Opening on Black Sabbath-crunchy power chords, Neko Case returns to the Pornographers' fold, belting out tough verses about silver bullets and "the voice of the idolmaker" over thundering tom-tom rolls and piano. Like a scrappy Fleetwood Mac after a few rounds of Canadian Club.

a whole album like this, plz.

Like a scrappy Fleetwood Mac after a few rounds of Canadian Club.
Prolly the best one-liner description of the Newps to date, nyet?

new single - Crash Years :

Neko sings, with clean and rich production (flutes, violins,guitars,whistles..), that reminds me more of the Newman solo Get Guilty sound, as oppose to Hands (Together) which sounds like a Twin Cinema outtake i guess.

very good tune.

totally dig crash years.

aww . . . hands (together) is better than an outtake.

this band has a lot more in the tank than some gave them credit for after the underrated challengers (ac newman solo albums, otoh . . .)

samples of all the songs from the new album can be found on the RYM page, here:

http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/the_new_pornographers/together/

1st impression:
sounds like a continuation of the last Newman solo LP (same producer in both) and Challengers, only with Bejar and Case added on vocals, of course.

That's disappointing. Don't love either of those.

Excellent.

sounds like a continuation of the last Newman solo LP (same producer in both) and Challengers, only with Bejar and Case added on vocals, everything they've made up to this point, of course.

Fixed.

(I really liked a good 9 or more of those 12 samples. Even the first Bejar track seemed enjoyable.

the samples sound fantastic. more "rock," less "power-pop," with a renewed emphasis on drums and the newman/case close harmonies. super excited about the disc.

So, this did what sinks do. L****d. Have to say, first listen (halfway through) and this is much better than Challengers.

Way better than Challengers, very low-key feel most of the way through, or at least low-key for them. Maybe I'm misremembering the first couple albums but the tempos feel slower. "Up in the Dark" is my favorite on first blush -- great combination of their classic sounds with the weird time signature, metronomic guitars, and ungodly catchy vocal lines.

nothing new here, from a band that sounds different (at least to some extent) on each album -
sadly, they are repeating themselves only without the energy,the brilliant tunes, and the interesting production.

i wish they would take some risk at this point, but maybe you can't do in yr 40's what you could do when you were younger.or just don't want to anymore.

i haven't heard the new one, but what would be a risk for this band? ten-minute songs? lo-fi production? Genuinely curious. The New Pornos aren't really a band I look to for risk-taking or wild new directions. I just expect harmonies/energy/bejar/case/hooks.

btw, when i was typing that the Pretenders' "message of love" came on the stereo -- sounded like the New Pornographers there at first!

i think Twin Cinema was risk taking at it's best in terms of production.